Lotte Gerritsen

Lotte Gerritsen is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Utrecht University's Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Psychology. She works within the Clinical Psychology program and maintains her research lab at www.gerritsenlab.com. Her office is located at Martinus J. Langeveldgebouw, Heidelberglaan 1, Room H1.54, 3584 CS Utrecht.

Dr. Gerritsen received her PhD at Utrecht University in Clinical Epidemiology, completed a postdoc at the Donders Center for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, and another postdoc at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, for which she received a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship. She previously worked as an assistant professor at the Department of Psychiatry of the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam and has been awarded prestigious grants including a Veni fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

Her research primarily focuses on clarifying how biomarkers could be useful in clinical psychology. She combines sex hormones, stress hormones, neuroimaging (EEG, MRI), and behavioral data to understand individual differences in emotion regulation and stress sensitivity using a lifespan approach. Her previous work includes investigating how stress interacts with biomarkers (telomere length, DNA methylation, genetics) on neuropsychiatric outcomes such as depression, cognitive decline, and structural brain changes, as well as cross-sectional neuroimaging of depression and childhood trauma. She also has significant interest in aging and philosophy of mind.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a strong trend toward understanding the intersection of hormonal factors, particularly related to menstrual cycle and contraceptive use, with brain function, emotion regulation, and mental health outcomes. Her work increasingly focuses on sex differences in neurodegeneration and dementia, with multiple studies examining the relationship between depression, Alzheimer's disease biomarkers, and cognitive decline in aging populations. The research employs diverse methodologies including neuroimaging, biomarker analysis, prospective daily studies, and large-scale meta-analyses across multiple cohorts.

• 2022 Dynamics of Youth grant 'Oral contraception and stress regulation in adolescents'
• 2021 Alzheimer NL research grant 'Sex differences in dementia incidence'
• 2020 Forte Grant - Swedish Research Foundation 'Work stress and brain aging'
• 2019 UU Research Grant 'Impact of contraceptive use on brain and emotion regulation'
• 2018 Alzheimer NL research grant 'Late-life depression and brain aging'
• 2013 ZonMW Veni grant 'The stressed brain'
• 2011 Individual Marie Curie fellowship EU FP7 'Stress, aging and the brain'

Dr. Gerritsen has secured substantial research funding through competitive grants from various national and international organizations. Her work involves collaborations with institutions including UMC Utrecht, Stockholm University, and the Karolinska Institute. She serves as an editor for prestigious journals including Psychosomatic Medicine, Journal of Affective Disorders, and Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. Her research themes align with Dynamics of Youth (DoY) and Life Sciences (LS) initiatives at Utrecht University, with particular relevance to understanding mental health across the lifespan.

She leads the Gerritsen Lab, which focuses on experimental psychopathology with an emphasis on biomarkers in clinical psychology. Her research integrates neuroscience, epidemiology, psychology, and philosophy to address complex questions about mental health and brain function across the lifespan. The lab's work has significant implications for understanding individual differences in stress responses, emotion regulation, and vulnerability to mental health disorders.